More than a month ago, Martha Dominguez unofficially dropped out in the race for a seat on State Board of Education, those around her say.

Her name, though, remained on the ballot and, shockingly, she easily won the Democratic Primary on Tuesday.

Now she seems to be in political hibernation.

Dominguez, who is the support personnel director for the Ysleta Independent School District, did not return emails or repeated phone calls left at her home and office numbers.

Several sources, including some familiar with her, told the El Paso Times that Dominguez informed her family, friends and fellow employees that she did not want to run anymore. That was well before the May 29 primary election, but well after the March deadline to have her name taken off the ballot.

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Aaron Bracamontes

Throughout the campaign, she did not put up any signs or distribute any other campaign literature.

Her "final" campaign finance report, which normally is filed after the election, was filed on May 4, weeks before the primary.

Arlinda Valencia, president of the Ysleta Teachers Association, said everyone around the district knew Dominguez had dropped out.

"Everyone I had talked to told me she had dropped out," Valencia said. "It was common knowledge."

Dominguez had talked to Valencia when she entered the race about getting the association's support.

"She told me she had never been in a political race before and didn't know what to do, but she wanted our support," Valencia said. "I told her to call me and one week went by, then another and she never called.

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Valencia said she was told Dominguez dropped out and assumed that is why she never called.

Now people are confused about who the nominee is, and Valencia thinks Dominguez should answer questions.

"It's like playing a prank or practical joke on the democratic process to enter the race if you have no intention of seeking it," Valencia said.

Dominguez secured the Democratic bid, and she will now run against Republican incumbent Charlie Garza in the Nov. 6 general election. There currently is no avenue for a candidate who wins the party's primary to drop out of the race before the November election. Candidates who are in their party's primary runoff have until June 9 to drop out.

Dominguez is not in a runoff.

Final results from Tuesday's primary showed Dominguez with 49,204 votes, or 56 percent of the vote, in District 1, which covers El Paso, West Texas and parts of Southwest Texas.

Both were surprised to see Dominguez easily win as the results came in Tuesday night.

"It's a mystery to me," Muro said. "We stayed at voting stations and people were telling us they voted for us."

Muro said the low interest in the race mixed with the name placement on the ballot caused the unknown candidate to win.

"I'm attributing it to her being at the top of the ballot," Muro said. "I think that had a lot to do with it."

Gregory Rocha, a University of Texas at El Paso political science professor, said another explanation could be her name.

"People sometimes vote on names, and being a Latina woman can be beneficial," Rocha said. "When you are there making a decision on little or no information, sometimes you go off of their name."

The decision to go with the first name on the ballot or just vote for the name alone happens when the voter is uninformed, Rocha said.

"People were watching the congressional race or their state representative race, but a lot of people probably don't know about the state board of education," Rocha said. "For many years, people have claimed that is the downfall of the long ballot."

If Dominguez does not wish to pursue the nomination, the next question on Mora's and Muro's minds is what will happen next?

"I'm not sure if I will get to go into a runoff with Mora," Muro said. "It is hard to speculate."

However, the state Demo cratic Party has not received any notification from Dominguez.

Because the race is in multiple counties, she would need to file with the state party.

Even locally, the El Paso County Democratic Party has not been in contact with Dominguez.

"Officially we have not heard anything," said Democratic County Chairman Danny Anchondo. "If she decides to get out, then we (Democratic Party) can get someone else to run in November."

And Mora thinks he should be considered since he got 30 percent of the vote.

"I would love to run and I did get the second-highest amount of votes," Mora said. "If she wasn't looking forward to campaigning for the primary, I don't think she would like to campaign in November against a Republican. I would look forward to it."

Aaron Bracamontes may be reached at abracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6156. Follow him on Twitter @AaronBrac.

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